Author: Greg Whitt - greg@urbanflavorz.com.
Published: December 31, 1969
Tool: [ email ]
Y'all remember the dark skinned dude from A Tribe Called Quest? You
know who I'm talkin about, man. The short guy with the distinctive
voice and witty rhymes. Yeah, that's right the one who killed
"Scenario", one of the greatest posse cuts in hip-hop history. If you
don't know, Phife Dawg aka Mutty Ranks is going to make sure you
do. His new album Ventilation, released on Groove Attack Records, is
hip-hop in it's purest form. Don't believe me? Hear it from the man
himself.
-----
Back in '89, I simply slid into place/ "Buddy, Buddy,Buddy" all up in
your face/ A lot of kids was bustin rhymes, but they had no taste/
Some said Quest was wack, but now is that the case?/
I have a quest to have the mic in my hand/
Without that, it's like Kryptonite and Superman
Phife in "Award Tour"
-----
Greg Whitt: What's going on man?
Phife Dawg: What up Dun.
Greg: I know you've probably answered this a million times but please
talk to the Urbanflavorz readers quickly about what happened
with
Tribe?
Phife: Well it was just a matter of splitting up. We all had different
things that we wanted to do. There were also some straight up
honesty issues, but we cleared whatever little beefs that we
had
and we're cool again. There's also the possibility that we will
record something again in the future but right now we all want
to focus on what we're doing right now.
Greg: What's it like being on an independent label? You're on Groove
Attack right?
Phife: Yeah. It's really the same thing to me to me. It's mostly more
freedom. When you're working with a major label like Jive
always
their project at the end of the day and I just got tired of
always hearing those words all the time. YouknowwhatI'msayin?
I
want to do my thing my way. When you have a vision you hate to
see it get shitted on by someone who has no idea what it's like
to be from the streets. A label will be like "I want you to do
a
record with Bette Midler!" (laughs) youknowhaIi'msayin? It's
like a painting. I don't want to draw what they draw just
because they got a little loot under the project you know?
Greg: Now Groove Attack is in Germany Right? How'd you hook up with
them?
Phife: I got with Groove Attack specifically because the album would be
distributed in the U.S. A lot of people though I had recorded
the album in Germany which is incorrect. I basically recorded
the album where ever the producer was. Like if I did a joint
with Jay Dee, I went to Detroit. If I did a joint with Rick
Rock I went out to the Bay Area. When I did a joint with Fred
Wreck I went out to LA. I did a joint with Hi-Tek, he's from
Cincinatti, but was in NY because he was working on the
Reflection Eternal album with Talib Kweli at the same
time. Also my man Pete Rock and my man Dave West were in NY.
Greg: Are you planning on doing any touring with this album?
Phife: Ummmm, definitely. I plan on doing some college dates soon.
Greg: On the album you talk about the state of hip-hop today and what's
going on, but who are you listening to right now?
Phife: On the hip-hop tip right now I'm listening to the Prodigy album,
the HNIC joint. I'm a big Mobb fan just off the Strength of
queens so I'm listening to that. I'm banging the new MOP
album; I'm banging the Musiq Soulchild album
Greg: Yeah, I got that one too. That's a slept on album
Phife: Yeah, I'm looking forward to the new Bilal album. I'm still
banging the Slum village album; I'm bangin the Lucy Pearl joint
and Jill Scott definitely. I'm not listening to hip-hop too
much
right now.
Greg: On the album you comment a lot on the state of hip-hop and on the
radio all you hear is talk about Ice, and Bentleys and all of
that. Why do you think thats going on? I mean do you think that
it's a trend that gonna continue for much longer or Not?
Phife: I think it's a combination of things. The labels are gonna get
behind anything that's talking about Bentleys, or the new
Volvo, or the Escalade. Labels will feed you that shit. They
will go get you a Bentley just so you can talk about it in you
rhymes. If it was some afro centric, militant stuff going on,
the labels would buy you books about Marcus Garvey or get Steve
Biko if he was still alive (laughs). If gangsterism is popular
they'll get you Mac-10s. I ain't talk about Mack-10 the rapper,
no disrespect to Mack; I'm talking about the gun! They'll buy
you all types of toolies and shit just so you can talk about
it. If rap love songs were. Popular they'd have you doing
records with Britney spears.
Greg: And it's no originality either. I'm a writer and one of the first
things they teach you in school is not to plagiarize.
Plagiarism
will get you kicked out of school and in all types of
trouble. But for some reason its okay in the hip-hop industry
right now.
Phife: It's like Jay-z raps about it, the Ice and Stuff but it's the
WAY he does it he's gonna be abstract with it. He's not gonna
just say "Bentley" in a song. That's the easy way out. He's
gonna construct a song. There's money to be made in this for
everybody, but nowadays niggas thinks its cool to bite.
When I first came out, niggas would get punched in their fuckin
face for doing that shit but now its ok. I believe in
longevity
man. It ain't too many people who put out like nine albums
other than KRS or LL. If BIG was still alive, I definitely
think that he woulda been one of those cats that put out a lot
of albums too. First of all because Puffy ain't havin it
(laughs)
He's a businessman and when you got one of the best emcees ever
on you label you gonna use him. And now Snoop is putting out
lot of albums too.
Greg: Yeah, I mean right now people are puttin out like six albums in
three years but that don't equal longevity.
Phife: You know?! People don't take their time. You gotta take your
time and listen to your last album and make sure that this
album don't sound like the other one. You always gotta take
the
time to make sure you always have somethin that makes you, YOU.
I look at like Raekwon. You how he always start each song like
"Yo,Yo,Yo" And then just start spittin something like
"Magnolium
rocks, somethin,somethin, somethin," (Both laugh)
And like, who else got a ill trademark...Ummm... Like Lil Kim
and Big and how they used to always start out they rhymes like
"Huhh". They had to do that you know what I'm sayin?
Greg: And that got bit!!
Phife: (Shaking Head) Yeah and that got bit too.
Greg: Aight lets talk real quick about the album. Any guests? You got
some incredible production, by the way.
Phife: Appreciate that Son, I got four joints from my man Hi-Tek, he
blessed me with four. I got one from my man Rick Rock; he did
like two joints off the new Jay-Z dynasty album. He did the
"Parkin Lot Pimpin" joint. He produced "Club Hopper" on
mine. My man Dave West produced Miscellaneous; you might
remember him from the work he did on the latest De La album. I
got one from Fred Wreck who you might remember from the
production he did on Kurupt's album. I also have Jay-Dee and
Pete Rock.
Greg: I know that you have the whole Mutty Ranks alter ego would you
ever consider doing an entire reggae album?
Phife: I don't know if I would do an entire album, I mean maybe. I
definitely want tap into that a little more though.
Greg: One last question. Big Ed, the CEO of Urbanflavorz who hooked
up this whole interview begged me to ask you this. On the hook
to
"Electric Relaxation", what does it say after "Relax yourself
girl?..."
Phife: (Laughs) That's probably one of the most asked Tribe questions
Ever! It says "Please settle down".
Greg: Aight, thanks a lot for doing the interview
Phife: No doubt, One
Peace
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